Summer is here in the San Juans, and this week we’ve actually had the weather to prove it! It was a toasty 84 degrees as we left the dock today, and we were all quite grateful to have the breeze coming off the water to cool us down. What a perfect day to be out on a boat, exploring the protected inland Salish Sea! Our southern residents were coming down from Pt. Roberts to meet another group, and we’d kept our hopes high that they might continue south within our range. As it turned out, once the two groups met up they turned around and went back north, far out of our range, likely heading to the Fraser River in search of Chinook. Though we were disappointed, we spent a lot of time discussing the importance of this river’s salmon runs and hoped that wherever the orcas ended up, they were finding a feast! We continued on our journey cutting through John’s Pass and enjoyed the sites of camp Norwester, exchanging waves with a few happy campers hanging outside their tepees. We encountered harbor porpoise several times throughout the cruise, and watched as they did a bit of fishing in the riptides. Other exciting sightings included a bald eagle next to it’s nest, with a large fledgling sitting inside, several other bald eagles either perched on branches or soaring through the sky, harbor seals both hauled out and swimming along side our vessel, female mouflon sheep, and lastly but certainly not least – a pair of oyster catchers! Though there were no orca sightings, today was a relaxing and fun trip full of great wildlife encounters, and our guests left eager to join us again in the future!

Heather, San Juan Excursions Naturalist